Useless Conversation

[Rendakor]

This is the easy option. We've plenty of beaches either here in NJ or a stone's throw away.

Jersey? Go to Pigeon Forge, TN. 

My family always did Nag's Head/ Kitty Hawk at the Outer Banks. I was 8-12 those vacation years and enjoyed it as did my siblings. You're within stones throw of Roanoke and some other fun touristy things in that area. Certainly a better time than when my parents took us to Colonial Williamsburg.

Pigeon Forge actually looks like a good time; I've never heard of it but seems like there's a lot of stuff to do. It's funny that you mention Williamsburg because that's somewhere we're considering going without the kids.

[Chimpy]

Pigeon Forge is only good if you are into heehaw and all you can eat buffets. 

[Rendakor]

We live in this weird part of NJ that thinks it's Alabama; we have a weekly rodeo for fuck's sake. I'm no stranger to heehaw.

[Cheddar]

Pigeon Forge is only good if you are into heehaw and all you can eat buffets. 

Bring money. 

[cmlancas]

So um.  I got married and stuff on Sunday. 

https://www.facebook.com/CrossCreekRanchFL/?fref=ts

Second post down.   

[Signe]

Hey, congrats, cm!  It looks beautiful.

Ren, are you from Cowtown?  Do you have one of those Cowtown Texas accents?  So weird.   

[Viin]

So um.  I got married and stuff on Sunday. 

Congrats!

[cmlancas]

Hey, congrats, cm!  It looks beautiful.

Ren, are you from Cowtown?  Do you have one of those Cowtown Texas accents?  So weird.   

Thank you! :D

[Trippy]

Is there a lot of kids stuff there? Last time I've been (admittedly more than 10 years ago) it was mostly museums and monuments, which would bore the kids to tears.

Oh in that case you probably don't want to go to D.C. As a kid I loved going to the California Academy of Sciences (and the Exploratorium) and would have loved to go to many of the Smithsonians like the Air and Space and Natural History museums. So that's what I was basing my recommendation on.

[Yegolev]

My family likes Williamsburg but you want to be a history nerd.  Not sure if the under-seven crowd would like it.  My son liked it when he was 11.

Seems like one of those Philly-Atlantans I know (there are a lot of these) said something about amusement parks like Magic Mountain(?).  Is that what people there do?

[RhyssaFireheart]

So um.  I got married and stuff on Sunday. 

https://www.facebook.com/CrossCreekRanchFL/?fref=ts

Second post down.   

Congrats!  Lovely pics of you and your bride.  Best pic was the one with the quote "Having their friend marry them was incredibly sweet." - the expression on his face is hilarious!

Wishing you happiness and joy for many years!

[HaemishM]

Congrats on the nuptials!

[WayAbvPar]

So um.  I got married and stuff on Sunday. 

https://www.facebook.com/CrossCreekRanchFL/?fref=ts

Second post down.   

Congrats! Tell your new wife that she did a great job picking the color of the bridesmaid dresses. They can go SO wrong, but that color is awesome.

[Chimpy]

I think WAP's wife might have gotten access to his account 

[Selby]

Pigeon Forge is only good if you are into heehaw and all you can eat buffets. 

If your idea of a good time is "Las Vegas done white trash style but without the gambling" then it's great. I live 50 miles away and it's not a place I have ever wanted to go back to after the first drive through (despite the car show they put on). The kids love Dollywood which is nearby and not so white trash (definitely hee haw) but I wouldn't make a special trip out here for it. I'm personally a museum fan and DC was good for that.

[Yegolev]

You can drive into the national forest and end up in Gatlinburg, though, which has stores selling ninja stars and tee shirts, and an aquarium that smells like poor people.

[Signe]

Take them to the Devon Horse Show where posh people wearing fancy boots step in horse shit. 

[Rendakor]

Ren, are you from Cowtown?  Do you have one of those Cowtown Texas accents?  So weird.   

Cowtown is in the next town over. And that's really just the name of the rodeo, the town is called Woodstown. And no, I don't have a southern accent (but neither do I say it "joisey").

We're going to try a local museum, The Franklin Institute in Philly to see how they like that.

Gratz on getting hitched cm!

[taolurker]

The Franklin Institute is not "a local museum", and in fact is almost completely NOT a museum. I'd consider it more a children's playground based around Science. Some of the things there include a Giant Heart you can walk through, various thought or science experiments, and quite a LOT of hands on stuff.  There is nothing "museum" about it, and I don't think it's possible for a kid to NOT like that place, let alone it shaping or determining whether kids would go to museums.

[Morat20]

The Franklin Institute is not "a local museum", and in fact is almost completely NOT a museum. I'd consider it more a children's playground based around Science. Some of the things there include a Giant Heart you can walk through, various thought or science experiments, and quite a LOT of hands on stuff.  There is nothing "museum" about it, and I don't think it's possible for a kid to NOT like that place, let alone it shaping or determining whether kids would go to museums.

Sound's like a children's museum, actually. We have one here in Houston that my nephews love.

My Dad came home from the hospital, sporting a few (temporary) new parts -- some weird temp filter to catch clots until he can go back on his blood thinners. While the hospital was pretty good in some ways, they really seemed to drop the ball in others -- their pulmonary guy practically took over, ignored the bleed (he figured it was 'mending' despite having to routinely top Dad off with another pint) other than insisting on a filter, and just flat out didn't seem to want to consult my Dad's hematologist.

My Dad's been on blood thinners for 40 years, he's had this hemotologist for over a decade, and this random hospital doc wants to claim he'll have to stop taking blood thinners for life without so much as a "Hello" to his specialist? WTF.

I had to nip that in the bud (my parents were, at this point, exhausted. The pulmonary guy was pushy as hell about a permanent filter, but I think even without calling me over to get an awake adult to help, Dad would have resisted anything without a sign-off from his regular doc).

Anyways, he's still bleeding a tiny bit they think -- small intestine. Since he's off his meds, it's not a problem. (Even on it, without the interaction, he'd have just been a bit tired at worse). Given the scans he's been given, they're pretty sure it's one of about three things (all fixed with a very simple surgery, often without requiring an incision at all) and compounded from "irritation" to "nearly lethal" by bad drug interactions. Either today or Monday he's swallowing a very tiny camera that'll photo ever millimeter of his small intestine to locate the source.

I'm still irritated that that pulmonary guy (I get his primary concern was to protect the heart and lungs from clots, because that's lethal. I get that. I DON'T get him trying to make permanent changes in my father's treatment regime without consultation, especially when a temporary fix existed. Doubly so when that long-term choice is sub-par to anticoagulants in the first place. Triply so when he walks in that fucking morning and wants to do it in the next few hours. My mother was panicking when she called me down). It took us most of the day on Tuesday (this five days after he was admitted!) to get them to call in his hematologist for a fucking consult. It's not like it's a life-long fucking condition he's been managing since around the time I was born. Jesus.

[Strazos]

Franklin Institute is great - one year, they had an "exhibit" which consisted of dozens of vintage arcade units. 

[Morat20]

Franklin Institute is great - one year, they had an "exhibit" which consisted of dozens of vintage arcade units. 

That does sound good. :)

[Signe]

Not just for kids.  A few years ago I went to see the big Egypt display.  It was pretty awesome.  I've heard the Pixar exhibition is pretty awesome, too.  There's also IMAX films and a planetarium.  The kid science stuff really is special, though.  They'll really love the heart... I don't know why there is something special about being inside a giant heart.  When I was little I would try to find hiding places so I could stay in the heart forever.  And back then it was a pretty cheesy heart.  Anyway, my favourite bit it the trains.  No, I'm not a train spotter but these trains are awesome.  I suggest buying tickets in advance for the exhibits and films you want to see.  And they're not cheap.

[cmlancas]

Congrats! Tell your new wife that she did a great job picking the color of the bridesmaid dresses. They can go SO wrong, but that color is awesome.

She probably spent more time on that than anything else.  We were really happy with the way the came out...but then again it seems like everything at Anthropologie is great.

[RhyssaFireheart]

The Franklin Institute is not "a local museum", and in fact is almost completely NOT a museum. I'd consider it more a children's playground based around Science. Some of the things there include a Giant Heart you can walk through, various thought or science experiments, and quite a LOT of hands on stuff.  There is nothing "museum" about it, and I don't think it's possible for a kid to NOT like that place, let alone it shaping or determining whether kids would go to museums.

Sound's like a children's museum, actually. We have one here in Houston that my nephews love.

My Dad came home from the hospital, sporting a few (temporary) new parts -- some weird temp filter to catch clots until he can go back on his blood thinners. While the hospital was pretty good in some ways, they really seemed to drop the ball in others -- their pulmonary guy practically took over, ignored the bleed (he figured it was 'mending' despite having to routinely top Dad off with another pint) other than insisting on a filter, and just flat out didn't seem to want to consult my Dad's hematologist.

My Dad's been on blood thinners for 40 years, he's had this hemotologist for over a decade, and this random hospital doc wants to claim he'll have to stop taking blood thinners for life without so much as a "Hello" to his specialist? WTF.

I had to nip that in the bud (my parents were, at this point, exhausted. The pulmonary guy was pushy as hell about a permanent filter, but I think even without calling me over to get an awake adult to help, Dad would have resisted anything without a sign-off from his regular doc).

Anyways, he's still bleeding a tiny bit they think -- small intestine. Since he's off his meds, it's not a problem. (Even on it, without the interaction, he'd have just been a bit tired at worse). Given the scans he's been given, they're pretty sure it's one of about three things (all fixed with a very simple surgery, often without requiring an incision at all) and compounded from "irritation" to "nearly lethal" by bad drug interactions. Either today or Monday he's swallowing a very tiny camera that'll photo ever millimeter of his small intestine to locate the source.

I'm still irritated that that pulmonary guy (I get his primary concern was to protect the heart and lungs from clots, because that's lethal. I get that. I DON'T get him trying to make permanent changes in my father's treatment regime without consultation, especially when a temporary fix existed. Doubly so when that long-term choice is sub-par to anticoagulants in the first place. Triply so when he walks in that fucking morning and wants to do it in the next few hours. My mother was panicking when she called me down). It took us most of the day on Tuesday (this five days after he was admitted!) to get them to call in his hematologist for a fucking consult. It's not like it's a life-long fucking condition he's been managing since around the time I was born. Jesus.

Oh wow, that pulmonary specialist sounds all sorts of special    Glad you were there to be pushy back and that your dad's out of the hospital.

[IainC]

Some fucker in Thailand tried to take cash out of an ATM on my Spanish credit card. First two goes were declined but the bank let the third one through while I was on the phone to their fraud-protection line. I can claim it back but I'd have to fly to Spain and make a police report, which would cost me more than the amount they stole. My new card will be at the branch in about a week and I'll have to get a friend to collect it for me and forward it to Kyiv.

[Paelos]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

[Nebu]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

Good luck.  Hope the procedure goes well.

[Rasix]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

I really hope I never have to do that. I hear sinus surgery is pretty nasty. Mine's not totally pinched off.  Sadly, my ENT thinks it may just be a matter of time before it's necessary.

Best of luck.

[01101010]

The gf had sinus surgery to remove some stuff. She said it was the grossest thing she has ever had to go through. Quick heal though.

[Trippy]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

Good luck on the nose job

[cmlancas]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

Let us know how taking it in the face goes?   

[Endie]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

I hear sinus surgery is pretty nasty.

Honestly who says that to someone before an op?!?

[Rasix]

He'll live.

[Morat20]

Getting my deviated septum corrected today so here's to pain pills and recovery time

I really hope I never have to do that. I hear sinus surgery is pretty nasty. Mine's not totally pinched off.  Sadly, my ENT thinks it may just be a matter of time before it's necessary.

Best of luck.

My Dad did the roto-rooter sinus thing. Said it was unpleasant, but not as bad as he'd feared.